Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume VI.djvu/638

 626 ENGLAND CHURCH OF ENGLAND justice in former times, is proper now, the king being capable of doing nothing, while his " advisers " do everything. He is head of the church, but he cannot alter the state religion, and should he become a Roman Catholic he would forfeit his crown. The succession to the crown is what is known as semi-Salic ; that is, females can inherit and transmit the sov- ereignty. Females of a nearer consanguinity to the sovereign take precedence over males of a more remote degree ; but in the same degree of consanguinity males, irrespective of order of birth, take precedence over females. The privy council is appointed by the king, and is bound to advise him to the best judgment of the members. With the advice of this body the king can publish proclamations, provided they are of a legal character. The council can inquire into all offences against government, and commit offenders for trial. The judicial committee of the council is a court of appeal in cases of lunacy and idiocy, and in admiralty and plantation causes, in questions between colonies, and all kindred questions. It has an appellate jurisdiction over all parts of the em- pire, except Great Britain and Ireland, in the last resort. The executive government is in the hands of the ministry, which consists of the leading men of the dominant party. This has not always been the custom, for though there have always been ministers, a ministry was not formed till after the revolution, of which event it was one of the consequences. The cabinet, though now formed from the ministry, and often confounded with it, is not identical with it, and is indeed much older than the ministry. It originated in the custom, which was inevi- table, of intrusting power to some few of the king's ministers. In the reign of Charles I. this knot of ministers, or "junto," as they were called, were in the habit of holding meetings in the cabinet of the queen consort, Henrietta Maria, whence the name came to have its pres- ent meaning. The word cabal had the same meaning for a time, but the unpopularity of the cabal ministry, in the reign of Charles II., caused it to become so odious that it has never since been employed in a respectful sense. The cabinet, or rather the cabinet council, has never been recognized by the law, it has no legal ex- istence now, the names of the persons who com- pose it are never officially published, and no record of its doings is kept. The difference between the cabinet and the ministry may, perhaps, be best stated by mentioning the com- position of the existing English government. The ministry now consists of 31 persons, but the cabinet has only 1 6 members, viz. : the first lord of the treasury, chancellor of the ex- chequer, lord chancellor, president of the coun- cil, lord privy seal, secretaries of state for the home department, for foreign affairs, for the colonies, for war, and for India, first lord of the admiralty, first commissioner of works, chief secretary for Ireland, president of the local government board, vice president of the edu- cation committee of the privy council, and the chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster. Among the ministers who are not of the cabinet are the commander of the forces and the postmaster general. The post of prime minister, or pre- mier, has generally been held by the first lord of the treasury since the accession of the house of Hanover. It was most commonly held by the lord treasurer in earlier times, but there has been no such officer since 1714, the office being in commission, and it was Sir Robert Walpole who first attached the place of prime minister to that of first lord commissioner of the trea- sury. Previous to that time a secretary of state had higher official rank than the head of the treasury ; and after Walpole's fall. Lord Car- teret (Earl Granville) was the principal man of the ministry to which he belonged, and was a secretary of state. It has sometimes happen- ed that force of character has enabled a secre- tary of state to be premier in fact if not in name, as in the cases of the elder Pitt, Lord Castle- reagh, and Mr. Canning ; but the rule is, that the first lord of the treasury is premier. The two offices of first lord of the treasury and chancellor of the exchequer have sometimes been held by the same person, as they were for a time by Mr. Gladstone in 1873. The king can call a privy councillor to the cabinet, though he hold no office ; and eminent men have sat in that body merely as cabinet councillors. The principal authorities for the general history of England are : the works of Turner, Palgrave, Kemble, and Lappenberg, on the Saxon times ; Hallam's " Europe during the Middle Ages," and " Constitutional History of England ;" Thierry's Conquete de V Angleterre par les Nor- mands ; Freeman's "History of the Norman Conquest ;" the works of Stephen, Creasy, May, and Raikes on the English constitution ; the histories of England by Hume, Lingard, Knight, Mackintosh, Macaulay, and Froude, the last three being devoted to special portions of that history; and Pauli's continuation of Lappenberg. ENGLAND, Church of, the church established by law within the realm of England, and until 1871 of Ireland. Its origin is readily traced in English history, Christianity having gained a foothold in England at a very early date, and assumed from the first a more or less perfect ecclesiastical organization. It is held by some that the gospel was preached in Britain in the 1st century. Tertullian about the year 200 speaks of places in Britain which, though inaccessible to the Romans, were sub- ject to Christ. There is no doubt that the Britons were generally converted to the Chris- tian faith before the Saxon invasion in 449. Three British bishops were present in 314 at the council of Aries, one from York, one from London, and one from Caerleon in Wales ; showing that the church was regularly organized at that date. There were also Brit- ish bishops in the councils of Sardica in 347, and of Rimini in 359; and about the close